Hopeless Future, Shattered Past
by animegrrrl
Summary: AU, continuing after Goku's heart attack and death, Piccolo, Gohan, and Trunks are the only Z warriors left alive. On the run from the Androids, on the run from Cell, is it possible in this hellish world to find a little bit of happiness? YAOI. Possible p
1. Default Chapter

HOPELESS FUTURE, SHATTERED PAST

by animegrrrl, also known as: VegetaDaimoh and majunior117

SUMMARY: A/U, continuing after Goku's heart attack and death, Piccolo, Gohan, and Trunks are the only Z warriors left alive. On the run from the Androids, on the run from Cell, is it possible in this hellish world to find a little bit of happiness? YAOI. Possible pairings: Gh x P x 17 x Tr x Gh?

Time: The Past

Sorrow. Ceaseless, unending sorrow.

A hopeless future, a shattered past. What was the point of going on?

Firelight flickered across the face of a Namek in meditive pose. No emotion showed as he entertained these uncharasterically weak thoughts, but inside, the struggle raged.

The Earth in ruin, half the population already slaughtered, and Piccolo Daimoh, the once great demon king, completely powerless to do anything about it. The rest of the warriors were already dead. Even Vegeta was easily defeated, having every bone in his body broken one by one, until he was totally unable to move. He managed to spit in Android 18's face before she put out his flame. It was only a matter of time before they came for him, only a matter of time before he faced the inevitable-

A troubled noise snapped him out of his pose. The little bundle before him whimpered and Piccolo was there in less than a second. He tucked the white folds of his cape tighter around a curled body and put his hand on the child's forehead. "Shhh." Piccolo said. The child started to calm, and Piccolo wondered what sort of nightmare he had been having. Perhaps he was dreaming of all his friends being slaughtered, perhaps of his father being cruelly taken away before his time. If only Son Goku had been alive, Piccolo knew things would have been different. The man had a way about him that made you know that everything would somehow turn out alright. Despite the odds, Son Goku would have turned out on top.

The Namek softly ran a green hand through the child's wild black hair. A small smile graced Son Gohan's face in return. Piccolo felt the purpose of life returning to him. They may not have had Son Goku, the most powerful warrior in the universe, but they had his son.

Piccolo saw salvation.

TO BE CONTINUED 


	2. Chapter 2

Finished 03/20/2008

HOPELESS FUTURE, SHATTERED PAST - Ch. 2

by VegetaDaimoh/animegrrrl/majunior117/piccoloyaoi

Time: The Present

"Gohan!" the worried mother called out the front door. She peered through the thick foliage that grew over and concealed the quaint cottage. Taking a deep breath, she yelled yet again. "Gohaaan! Breakfast's ready!" Nothing but silence greeted her call. "Gohan..." Son Chi-chi thought, as she began to twist the apron over her dress in worry, "Where is my baby boy?" Steeling up her nerve, Chi-chi stepped out of the doorway and started walking farther from the house. "He said he'd be back around this time. I know I shouldn't worry, but what if..." Stopping at the edge of concealment, Son Chi-chi, worried mother and frazzled widow, prepared to take a mighty breath that would echo off the very mountains if it would bring her son back to her. She inhaled. "Go-HAAA-!"

A large hand settled over her mouth.

Pure instinct took over as the former warrior woman whirled and used her momentum to dig an elbow into the taller being's throat, quickly following with a roundhouse kick. There was a large crashing noise as firewood flew everywhere. Chi-chi blinked. The figure sprawled out before her, covered in said firewood, was only none other than her delinquent teenage son.

"Yeowch, mom." said Gohan as he sat up and rubbed his throat, "You still got it, heh."

"Gohan! What did you think you were doing?"

"Well," the demi-Saiyan bent over and started to pick up his pile of wood, "You were yelling so loud that I thought you were going to give our position away to the androids."

"Androids!" Chi-chi scoffed, putting her hands on her hips, while trying to calm her still rapidly beating heart. "As if they'd find us all the way out here in the middle of nowhere! We all know they like to attack easy targets, like the cities."

"Then," Son Gohan grinned as his eyes crinkled in mischief, "What were you so worried about me for?"

Chi-chi made a noise of indignation as she swatted at her teasing son, who obviously was in a very good mood. He danced away, easily evading the blow. Son Chi-chi watched her son continue to pick up firewood. It soon became apparent that the pile would become too big and overbalanced. She watched the half-Saiyan fumble at the last piece of wood with his foot, of all things, trying to flip it up onto the bundle that he refused to put down. She let him suffer for a few minutes, before sympathy overcame her. "Here, I'll get that." She walked over and neatly placed the branch on top of the pile.

Her heart looked down at her and smiled. "Thanks, mom."

"No problem." Chi-chi and Gohan walked back towards the house, side by side. As they walked, Chi-chi glanced up at the profile of her son, who even now, wore a slight smile. Despite all the hardships they had been through, despite all the horrible battles he had been in, Son Gohan's face still beamed with good natured warmth. Chi-chi watched the dappled forest light play over those large, dark, yet innocent eyes, and was reminded of another time when she was walking in the forest with a man side by side. Except that the man didn't have firewood in his hands, and she had a baby carriage in hers. She glanced up again and with a start, realized that she barely came up past her son's elbow now. "So like his father..." thought Chi-chi, pride swelling up as she tried to hold back the prick of tears.

Gohan spoke, breaking Chi-chi out of her reverie. "We're home."

"Oh!" she exclaimed. "I can't believe I left the door open! Gohan, go check the house for animals. Something might've snuck in."

"Ok, ok."

Chi-chi went directly into her well ordered kitchen. "No wild animals in here." she suspiciously observed. The woman started setting out quite a spread for her voracious son. She even started humming, relaxing in the normalcy and routine of the ritual. "Gohan!"

"Coming!" The teenager stopped in the kitchen doorway. "Er, actually, you wouldn't believe what I found in here..." A reptile-like head with horns and brilliant green eyes snaked it's snout out around Gohan's form. Upon seeing his mother's horrified face, Gohan did the classic hand-behind-head pose his father was so famous for and laughed. A rotund, purplish creature the size of a large pony squeezed past Gohan's legs and out the door frame, while the demi-Saiyan nonchalantly walked to the breakfast table and began to dig in. Chi-Chi braced herself for battle.

"No, I don't have any snacks for you! Shoo!"

The creature stopped sniffing the pockets of Chi-Chi's apron and moved away disappointedly. Gohan slipped it some breakfast scraps from underneath the table before the reptile headed for the exit. "I'll play with you later, Icarus."

"And watch where your tail goes!" Chi-chi sunk down into her chair exhausted, rubbing her temple in exasperation. Gohan noted his mother had nothing but a small bowl of cereal with strawberries for breakfast today. "Just once I would like for things to be normal." she mourned.

"What do you mean?"

"Having dragons begging for table scraps in the house, for example."

"Having Icarus around isn't bad."

"No, she isn't. But it'd be nice if other things were normal around here too. I miss having running water, and electricity. If the cities weren't destroyed, I could just go to the store instead of having to grow our own vegetables. Look at you!" and here Chi-chi indicated with a wave of her hand Gohan's current healthy stature, "I would've sent you off to high school by now. You're smart, I know you would've been well on your way to being a famous scholar... Maybe you would've even gotten a girlfriend by now, eventually marrying her and then you would have the cutest grandchildren-"

"Mom!" objected Gohan. "I'm only eighteen!"

Chi-chi sniffed. "I married your father when I was eighteen. But thinking about it now, I admit we were a bit young." The woman got up to put her half eaten bowl away. Light filtered in from the kitchen window, creating a sort of soft hallow where particles of sunlight had caught in the loose hairs of Chi-chi's bun. "Gohan, I'm not going to be around forever." the woman said wistfully, and a bit sadly. "I would like be there, to see little children running around the house again." Framed in the kitchen window, the light highlighted creases that had appeared in the corners of Chi-chi's eyes.

"She looks tired." Gohan noticed as if for the first time. He observed her delicate, feminine hands working away industriously. "They're so small." he thought, surprised. To him, his parents were always larger than life. His father Son Goku, was ever the hero, and Chi-chi too, in her own special, fierce, loving way. Perhaps, the teen thought, he had never noticed just how frail she was because of the sheer force of will she possessed. The strength of that will, expressed through those tiny, comforting, disciplining hands.

"For Kami's sake Gohan, at least chew before you swallow." Gohan gulped. The woman also changed moods dangerously fast.

"Sorry, I'm kinda in a hurry. I've got a fight with Piccolo-" CHINK! Gohan inwardly winced at the loud sound that came from the sink. He hoped another dish didn't get broken; manufactured goods were kinda hard to come by these days. "I mean, we're gonna spar..." Seeing Chi-chi visibly not relaxing, Gohan again tried to rephrase. "Um, we were gonna meet up with Trunks and try to teach him a new technique."

"How long are you going to be gone?"

"I don't know. It depends on Trunk's progress, definitely for a couple of days."

The protective mother obviously didn't like the idea. "Do you have to be that long?"

"Mom..."

"I just wish I could've sent you off to high school! There's still a couple left, farther away."

"I don't have time for that!" he snapped. "I don't know any girls except you and Bulma, and I'm not going to get a real job and settle down and have children anytime soon!" Gohan tried to calm down, embarrassed about raising his voice in front his mother. "I have to dedicate everything I have, all my time, to training. So that I can beat the androids, and I can live a normal life like you want. Mom, you know this is more important." Chi-chi had a bit of a shocked look on her face, before she turned around and started doing dishes again, saying nothing. For a bit, the only sound in the quaint cottage was running water and a guilty teenager finishing off the remains of breakfast.

"Here." Chi-chi handed Gohan a bundle. In response to his surprised look, she explained "I made some extra food. Give this to Trunks. With Bulma feeding him, the boy doesn't get any proper meals."

The teen grinned ruefully and all was right with the world. "Yeah, you're right."

"Gohan. Be careful."

"I will." The demi-Saiyan kissed his mother on the cheek and took off.

End Ch. 2

Author's Note: I'm sure some somewhere in the anime Icarus is mentioned as a male, just like Puar. In my opinion however, I firmly believe them to be girls!

...You know the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th chapters got wiped and I had to completely rewrite them from scratch/memory again. Very, very aggravating.

Please review. 


	3. Chapter 3

Finished 08/10/2008

HOPELESS FUTURE, SHATTERED PAST - Ch. 3

By VegetaDaimoh/animegrrrl/piccoloyaoi/majunior117

Time: The Past and The Present

It started out with a bang. Or perhaps a scream?

Yes, I remember now. I had heard the hoarse sound of man's startled cry, right before the explosion. Then definitely a scream, as my mother screamed for her father in fear. Then coughing, as she blindly tried to make her way through the hazy smoke.

"Hold on Dad, we'll get you out of there." she said, as she dropped to her knees in front of the wreckage. "Trunks! Where are you!"

"Here, Mom." I immediately set about digging Dr. Brief's free. Even back then I was an abnormally strong kid. I easily tossed the last jagged piece of metal clear of the old man's body. But then I stopped and stared, and asked a stupid question, blurting it out in shock. "Grandpa, where is your leg?"

The old scientist had enough strength left in him to chuckle. "Who knows."

That was when Mom got really hysterical. "Trunks!" she ordered, "Go hurry and see if you can get a senzu! No- wait! Stay here, we need to stop the bleeding first! Oh my Kami, where is the first aid kit!!" That was when I noticed Grandpa clearing his throat and trying, though too weakly, to get my mother's attention.

"BULMA!" I yell, startling her enough to make her stop running around. "He wants to talk to you."

She was immediately by his side, holding his hands and murmuring meaningless words of comfort. "It's going to be OK. Does it hurt anywhere?"

"It's too late, I am clearly bleeding to death. No, listen!" Grandpa cut Mom off before she started trying to find the first aid kit again. "I must tell you, it's very important. I believe Scratch got away in time. Find him, he is necessary for the completion."

"Dad, what are you talking about?"

"The time machine! It worked." Mom looked around in confusion, as we were sitting in the blasted and burned ruins of the failed experiment. "Look down at my leg." the old man said, by way of explanation.

Blood. Lots and lots of blood. I had to force myself not to wretch, and Mom really wasn't doing any better. But I started to look past that, and noticed something off about the leg. It wasn't mangled, crushed, or twisted like you would expect in an accident. It was just missing, like something had cleanly cut right through cloth, meat, then bone. "It's somewhere in another dimension, or timestream. Which one I don't know. But it worked! Bulma, you can change things now. You must carry on and perfect it for me."

"Dad," Mom sobbed as tears squeezed out her eyes. "I don't want you to die."

"It's alright, I've had a good life. Just promise..."

"But it's dangerous!" The old man renewed his grip on Mom's hands. His breath become even more labored, and Mom caved in just to get him to calm down. "Alright! Alright, I promise."

Grandpa sighed and immediately relaxed. "Good." he whispered. "I'll tell Bunny you said hello." I watched him close his eyes and fall off into sleep. "I wonder if she'll have tea and honeycakes waiting for me..." he murmured, with a faint smile on his face. Mom started to cry as she clutched his hands tighter and hunched over his prone form.

It wasn't for a few minutes afterwards that I realized we were sitting in a pool of blood, and the red that stained the hem of my mother's white lab coat had soaked up all the way to her pockets. Dr. Briefs, world renowned brilliant scientist, inventor of capsule technology, and my kind grandfather, was never going to wake from sleep again.

I blinked, and shook my head to let the wind whip stray bangs of hair out of the way of my stinging eyes. Must be the wind. Oh no, that couldn't be me crying. That had happened years ago and there was nothing to be tearing up over. In fact, I was flying on my way right now to spend time with Gohan-sensei. Apparently there was some new amazing technique that Piccolo had thought of to make us become stronger. I was looking forward to it. Still...

"Oh! Hey Trunks, are you going out?" I paused in midstep and turned around. Mom was in her favorite mechanics's suit, crouched down over something and holding a wrench. She flipped her long ponytail back over her shoulder and lit up a cigarette.

"Mom!"

"What!" She looked at me blankly for a second before she realized what I meant. "Oh, this?" she said, waving the cancer stick in my face as if my anger was nothing. "You know they help me concentrate."

"You said you would quit. Remember?"

"Well, it's not like the cigs will kill me before the Androids do!"

My mouth clicks shut and I can't help but glare at her. She had the nerve to smirk. "You look more like your father when you do that." That was it. I spun back around even as I heard her call my name.

"Trunks! Trunks, wait!" The woman caught my arm. "I put it out. Come here." She said, making a gesture with her hand. I wouldn't come to her so she came to me. She put her arms around my shoulders and started to rub my back. "There, that's my sweetheart." she murmured. "That's my boy." Her breath tickled my hair as she inhaled my scent. I was 14 and nearly the same height as Mom now, but when she did this I knew she was getting nostalgic. Probably thinking back to when I was a sweet, useless, diaper-crapping baby who couldn't talk back to her, back to when all of her friends and Father were still alive. I found myself starting to relax. "I'm sorry I said that."

I puffed the cigarette scent out of my nostrils. "No, it's okay."

Mom immediately brightened and in perfect imitation of Grandma Bunny, pinched both my cheeks, giggling and smiling so wide her eyes disappeared. Aggravated with her all over again, I pulled away and rubbed a cheek. "Mom, did you want something, or are you just having fun harassing me?"

She laughed. "A little of both. But actually-" and here she flourished a blueprint and pointed, "I want this."

All I saw were a tangle of twisted tubes. "Um..?"

"It's a car engine. Here." Mom circled something on the top of the picture. "This is specifically what I need." Noticing my confusion, she kept explaining. "Here's a picture of the car model. They're quite common actually. On your way out, go find and get this for me. You might find it in a city, someone's abandoned car you know."

"I doubt it. What's the point?"

"The POINT is that's a part I need for the time machine. I promised Dad I would finish it, and I will. I know, I used to think he was crazy for working on this too. But people used to think storing objects into compressed hyperspace was impossible, and we made that an every day commodity! The more I work on this, the more I understand what he was doing. We already have the spatial technology, I just have to fine tune the intersection of the fourth dimension of time-"

"Ok, ok, I get it. I'll try to look for it, alright?"

"Alright." Mom kissed me on the cheek. "Say hi to Gohan for me."

"Sure, whatever." I mutter. The last thing I saw before walking out the door was Mom holding Scratch, our favorite housecat, and asking it questions. He meowed back and she nodded, as if in understanding. "Oh yes, aren't I a genius Scratch, making a time machine out of scrap parts? Genius descended from genius!"

"Meooow!"

Honestly, Mom.

I shook my head again. Okay, enough daydreaming. At the rate I'm going, I was going to end up flying into a tree or cliff and not know it until too late. I can just hear Piccolo chewing me out by now. "Always pay attention to your surroundings! The androids have no ki to sense. They could come upon you at any moment..." I felt my eyes rolling in my head at the imagined lecturing voice. First my mom, then Piccolo. Adults were crazy, what did they expect of me? What did they want from me? I wasn't as smart as Mom. Other than gathering junk and moving stuff around for her, I really wasn't much of a help. I had felt her frustration, felt her wishing she had a scientific partner that could take the place of the brilliant Dr. Briefs, and wishing it could be me. I disappointed her in that way. But I felt like I could fight, and that's what I would do. I had taken more after my father in that area, I suppose. From the stories I had heard, he was monstrously strong and only second to Goku. But my father had died still, as the golden fury of Supersaiyan wasn't near powerful enough in the face of the androids. And I had a long way to go to even compare myself to Vegeta, according to Piccolo. Sigh.

My eyes automatically traced the outline of a singed hole, blasted earth made by the destructive hands of the androids. That was the beginning, there were a series of craters that connected and led up to the city of- You know, I don't remember the name of that city anymore. I remember it had an amusement park, the first and only one that Mom had taken me to. Among the toppled buildings and flooded streets, I couldn't even pick out where the Ferris wheel once stood. The destruction of this city wasn't recent, it had the stillness and silence of a cemetery. And if I couldn't pick out the amusement park, the dumpster area in contrast stood out in clear relief. I'm surprised that it was this large for that small of a city, but it looked promising... Well, I was a bit early. Maybe I could stop by and scout around for parts. If I did find anything, I could come back for it later. After all, it wasn't the first time I had done that. It would make Mom happy, whether the crazy time machine worked or not, and getting a smile out of her would certainly cheer me up.

I touched down gently and walked quietly. The habit of caution kicked in. I was reluctant to disturb this strange atmosphere, to make any noise in this graveyard of parts was to shatter it. Walking forward, I tried to identify the broken and rotting pieces around me. Here was a half burnt chair, and I could tell that was an old mattress by the springs sticking out. I was in the wrong section.

"CAW!" I spun around, startled at the harsh sound. I spotted the offender, who was perched on top of a large mound of twisted metal. The dark bird started to preen his glossy black feathers; they contrasted quite noticeably against the red piece of metal it was sitting on.

Red.

I blinked, and quickly pulled out the diagram that Mom had given me. An old looking styled car with modern hover wheels, red with chrome trim and white sides, and most notably, giant red fins jutting out like gaudy wings into the sky. I found myself grinning despite my disbelief. What luck, I couldn't believe it was that easy to find what I was looking for. It was dented, banged up and rusted, but it was definitely the same type of car in that picture. I started walking quickly toward the pile and squinted. Was there an engine underneath the hood? There was! I started to fly up, since it was too high for me to reach standing, and I didn't want to risk knocking the unstable pile over. The crow started to hop about and make chuckling noises, as if he was nervous at my approach. Up here I noticed that there were more birds, a lot more, perched on top of other piles. All with their beady black eyes and sharp beaks watching me. I was suddenly reminded that these opportunistic birds were carrion eaters. But what would they find dead to eat among piles of rust?

With one last sneer at the agitated bird, I shooed it off with a wave of my hand. My heart sped up while I peered underneath the hood. I felt like I had found one of the legendary dragonballs Mom had always told me about, instead of the simple mechanical piece she wanted. I could see that it would twist off easily. I reached for the small part, suddenly jerking back as I collided with a pale hand that wasn't mine. I yelled as I felt myself falling backwards and the old car pile came crashing down around me. Afterwards, while I lay trembling as the last of the crows' cries faded, I managed to shove a car off myself. This dead city and creepy dump had me seeing ghosts. "Stupid." I said, "You imagined it."

"Imagined what?"

My heart stopped. Yet through no will of my own, my head slowly turned and looked up. Piercing blue eyes. Long dark hair. A scarf... and a black shirt that said Red Ribbon. My heart started again, as it tried to jackrabbit it's way out of my chest. And I realized, looming up over me, was something so much worse than any malicious ghost.

"Well, well." the cool voice said. "What do we have here?"

End Ch. 3

Author's Note: I don't know about normal dumpsters in America, if they have a dumpster dedicated to just cars or something, but that's how they were Iraq on my base. Everybody's smelly refuse piled together in mounds, spilling down into the valley and the river, and something always burning while you had to shoo away the scavenger birds. If you stood on top of one of the piles, you had a great view of barren land and half bombed out buildings. Bleh. So yeah, that's what I was picturing as I wrote this. Anyways, I usually do Gohan angst. It feels a bit odd having another teen whining in my stories. And I don't know why I chose to write that in 1st person either. Let me know if it actually sounded like Mirai Trunks thinking. Think King Kai's classic car. Oh, and a warning: possible character death in the next chapter. Yay! Please review!

P.S. And a thank you to Volcanic and Space Weazel, because your reviews made me feel guilty enough (lol) to sit my lazy, distracted ass down and finish this chapter. 


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